Asserting that the Roe v. Wade decision would lead to the death of women, Hillary Clinton said in a Tuesday morning interview that she has known Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for as long as she has, and that he has always been “full with bitterness” and “anger.”
In a previously taped interview, Clinton said to CBS Mornings, “I went to law school with [Justice Thomas].” For as long as I’ve known him, he’s been filled with bitterness, grievance, and wrath.
The unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president in 2016 claimed that Thomas has “signaled” to state legislators and lower courts that they need to “find cases, enact laws, gets things up” to restrict same-sex marriage, contraceptive rights, and abortion.
When it comes to these problems and the likelihood that they will be overturned, Justice Thomas is being watched closely, according to Clinton, by those who are “right wing” and “extremely conservative.”
Her remark follows the shocking Supreme Court decision on Friday that overturned 50 years of precedent set by the famous abortion case Roe v. Wade.
‘The thing that is – well there’s so many things about it that are deeply distressing – but women are going to die, Gayle,’ Clinton said.
She insisted: ‘Women will die.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case before the Supreme Court, sought to overturn a Mississippi statute that forbade abortions beyond 15 weeks. The court issued a conservative 6-3 majority ruling upholding the statute.
One of the court’s most conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, stated in interviews that he didn’t know why he was chosen for the position and that he had “celebrated not being nominated” when he believed President George H.W. Bush had passed him over.
According to the recently published book Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words, Thomas stated, “I have no idea why or how I got selected.”
In the months leading up to his confirmation hearings in 1991, Thomas acknowledged that he “hadn’t thought about” the abortion debate.
On Friday, Thomas went one step farther than his fellow conservatives by submitting a concurring opinion in which he said that the court should also reexamine the legality of same-sex marriage and contraception.
Produced by director Michael Pack, who oversaw the U.S. Agency for Global Media under former President Donald Trump, and Mark Paoletta, a lawyer who worked with Thomas before his confirmation, Created Equal was a companion piece to a documentary about Thomas that was published in 2020.
Between November 2017 and March 2018, Pack spoke with Thomas for almost 30 hours; this interview served as the foundation for both the book and the movie.
Thomas made it apparent to Pack that he wasn’t thrilled about his nomination to the court and hadn’t given the abortion debate much thought before his confirmation hearings.
Pro- and anti-abortion protesters have been stationed outside the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. since the decision on Friday.
When Roe v. Wade was overturned, 13 states had so-called “trigger laws” that instantly outlawed abortion.